1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a backlight system and a liquid crystal display employing the same and, more particularly, to a backlight system providing enhanced uniform brightness, and a liquid crystal display (LCD) employing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display (LCD), which is a type of flat panel display, is a light receiving type display that is not self-luminescent but forms an image using incident light from an outside light source. A backlight system is disposed at a rear of the LCD to irradiate light toward a liquid crystal panel.
According to the arrangement of the light source, the backlight systems are classified into either direct light type backlight systems in which light emitted from a plurality of light sources disposed right below a liquid crystal panel is irradiated toward the liquid crystal panel, or edge light type backlight systems in which light emitted from a light source disposed on a sidewall of a light guide panel is transmitted to a liquid crystal panel.
The edge light type backlight systems using a cold cathode fluorescence lamp (CCFL) have generally been used up to now, and one of the edge light type backlight systems is shown in FIG. 1.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a conventional edge light type backlight system.
Referring to FIG. 1, the backlight system includes a light guide panel 1, a plurality of fluorescent lamps 3 arranged at edges of the light guide panel 1, and a plurality of reflectors 5 surrounding each of the fluorescent lamps 3 to reflect light emitted from the fluorescent lamp 3 to the light guide panel 1. The light guide panel 1 propagates the incident light emitted from the fluorescent lamps 3 to form a surface light source. A geometric pattern is printed or formed on a bottom surface of the light guide panel 1 to uniformly diffuse the incident light through the light guide panel 1 for illuminating a liquid crystal panel with uniform brightness.
Since the fluorescent lamps 3 are used in the conventional backlight system, color reproducibility is seriously degraded. In order to overcome such a drawback of the conventional backlight system, there are various studies in progress to develop a backlight system using a light emitting diode (LED) instead of the fluorescence lamp.
However, in the conventional backlight system, dark portions appear in the backlight systems using the fluorescent lamps 3 or the LED because a smaller quantity of light is emitted from the four corners of the backlight system. These dark portions cause the entire uniformity of the backlight system to be degraded.